My husband and I often like to visit the website “Fox Nation.” It’s the site put up by Fox, apparently some sort of response to sites like News Hounds, where they basically put up blogs and opinion pieces as if they were actual news coverage and invite the public to comment on them. We like to visit the site the same way we like to watch auto racing — we’re only doing it to see a massive wreck.

So today there was no mention of Joe Wilson calling the President a liar during last night’s speech (which, by the way, I was listening to the speech on the radio, so I assumed there had been a visitor in the chamber who yelled it out. When I got home and saw it was a congressman, I just thought, Sweet Conspiracy Theory, what the hell is WRONG with these people). But there IS a post about how the President called Sarah Palin a liar!

Of course, he didn’t actually say, “Sarah Palin is a liar” but I mean, we all knew what he was getting at.

Still, the lovelies at Fox Nation were out in full crazy force about this one. But my very favorite response was this one:

A lying theiving negro thug from chicago calling a white beauty pagent contestant from Alaska ANYTHING is unbeleiveable. His presence in the white house has diminished the dignity and honor of the office to lows even lower than that white trash rat Bill Clinton. What a whiney uppity negro.

Jim was pretty upset by this nonsense. I mean, I don’t know why it surprised him. The pretty people at Fox Nation have refered to the President of the United States as a terrorist, an ape, a monkey and even a spade, and when they do, someone usually responds with an LOL. Then they insist there’s no issue with race. Ok then.

However, my real beef with the above post at the Fox Nation is not the disparaging remarks about the President. I think at this point, I am immune to their temper tantrums and racist name calling. What really caught my eye was the disrespect aimed at former Governor Palin. You see, while this poster was attempting to attack the president, he was actually attacking Mrs. Palin.

A white beauty pageant contestant from Alaska — that is how he described her (although I spelled it correctly). After Sarah Palin’s political career, this is what this poster got out of it. She is a white beauty pageant contestant.

Sarah Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, as we all know. Her experience as a small town mayor was mocked a little during the election, but as someone who covers a small town for the local newspaper, let me tell you, it’s not an easy job. She then went on to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, an agency that oversees digging for oil in Alaska. Then she became not only the youngest but the first female governor of Alaska — and she did it by beating the INCUMBENT governor in the primary.

While in office as both a mayor and a governor, Palin took a pay cut, and she drastically reduced spending. She passed a bi-partisan ethics reform bill. And lest we not forget, Sarah Palin was the first female Republican nominated for the Vice Presidency of the United States, and the first Alaskan on a major party ticket.

Yet this guy calls her a “white beauty pageant contestant from Alaska.”

Sure, Palin has controversy and mis-steps up the yin yang. The Bridge to Nowhere (I was for it before I was against it). Getting her sister’s husband fired. DEATH PANELS! blah blah blah. I’m not a fan of the woman. But to reduce her accomplishments to “beauty pageant contestant” flies in the face of plain old ignorance. This Fox Nation-ite’s post is equal parts disparaging to both the President and to Mrs. Palin — it’s racist AND sexist.

I’m not sure how well this county can progress when so many people literally cannot see past what people look like, no matter who those people are.